R4 Automotive

What we built

Raven built a self-service quotation portal that pulls live pricing from eBay and Autodoc APIs, converts to KES with current FX rates, adds shipping and duty calculations, and presents a single fixed quote customers can pay via M-Pesa STK push. The platform also includes a recruitment portal that received 700+ applications during hiring for the business.

Why WhatsApp quoting stops working at scale

When every quote is a conversation, your throughput is capped by how fast someone can type. R4 was sourcing real parts from European marketplaces — prices move, stock moves, shipping bands change. Customers on Instagram and WhatsApp were waiting on humans to re-check supplier pages, convert currency, and reply. That breaks the moment volume picks up. The product had to become self-service: search, price, pay, confirm — without a human in the middle for the happy path.

Integration architecture — suppliers, FX, landed cost

We wired eBay and Autodoc APIs behind a single search surface. Each result carries supplier SKU, list price, availability, and shipping origin. FX is pulled from a conservative daily rate with a buffer so quotes do not move against the customer between click and pay. Duty and clearing estimates are applied as transparent line items so the KES total is one number the customer can trust at checkout. None of that lives in a spreadsheet anymore.

M-Pesa STK push and callback discipline

Checkout uses Safaricom Daraja STK Push. OAuth tokens are cached and refreshed before expiry. Callbacks are verified, idempotent, and logged — duplicate posts from the gateway do not double-charge. We run the same pattern we document in our M-Pesa integration write-up: HTTPS callback URL, structured logging, and a retry-safe order state machine so a dropped callback does not strand an order.

Recruitment load and what ships next

The recruitment module was not a side project — it processed 700+ applications when R4 hired. That validated auth, file uploads, and admin review flows under real load. Phase one ends with quoting and payment; fulfilment webhooks and supplier order confirmation are next as R4 moves toward general availability in 2026.

The outcome

Self-service quoting cut lead response time from days to seconds.

Customers now get instant, accurate quotes for European auto parts delivered to Nairobi. M-Pesa payment happens at checkout. Orders flow directly to the supplier APIs. What used to take 2–5 business days of manual quote-and-response now takes 30 seconds.